Lichtenstein, Pirates top North
By: Justin Feil
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls’ volleyball team is playing its best of the year.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, their season ends this week regardless of how they do in their final four matches. The Pirates missed the state tournament cutoff for being .500 by one game, but they improved to 10-10 overall with a 2-0 win over WW-P North on Friday.
"We played North and Hillsborough this past week," said Pirates’ outside hitter Ali Lichtenstein, who had seven kills, a block and three digs in the win over North. "We should have beaten them the last time."
But things were different the first time around for the Pirates. WW-P South wasn’t as good on serves early in the year, didn’t always play aggressively and just didn’t quite put everything together until midway through the season.
"We lost a lot of our strong offensive players this year," Lichtenstein said. "Most of our seniors last year were most of our offense. It was hard in the beginning to adjust to that. We had to change people around to different positions. We just got more confident with each other over the season. It helped to bring it together.
"Now that we’re all comfortable, we’re confident playing with each other. We’re doing a lot better."
The win over the Knights, who fell to 9-12, was proof enough. WW-P South handled North, 25-7, 25-15, after the Knights won the earlier season match, the first time they had ever beaten the Pirates. Sam Grossmith also had seven kills and Alexa Figueras had 22 service points and six digs.
"We were struggling with confidence really," said Pirates head coach Michael Adams. "They’ve got their confidence. It’s too bad it’s too late. We’re finishing out our season and we started beating teams we lost to earlier. The bad start kind of handcuffed us.
"It’s frustrating we didn’t make the state tournament. I’m sure we would have made a great run at it. They’re peaking now. Hannah Stewart is setting unbelievably. Ali is hitting well. Sam had a fantastic match against North."
All the pieces are in place for a state tournament run that won’t happen. It’s tough to swallow, especially for players like Lichtenstein who have made sacrifices to commit to the team and the sport.
"I’ve been doing swimming since I was around 6," said the junior. "My sister did volleyball and I picked it up from her. Everyone always said, ‘You should do it, you’re tall.’ My freshman year, I did both volleyball and swimming. Sophomore year, I had a decision. I had a lot more fun playing volleyball and I thought I had a lot more potential in it so I stopped swimming. I’m happy I did that."
Lichtenstein has shown through her play this year that the decision has benefited her as a volleyball player. It’s not just the Pirates that notice, but opposing teams and coaches have complimented her on her play this season.
"My weakness was I always used to hit it to the same spot," she said. "This year, I learned to adjust more."
Added Adams: "It’s nice to have someone who you know when the ball gets set to her, she gets you a point every time. She’s gotten compliments from every coach we’ve played. She’s a great outside hitter. She’s come a long way. She used to have one hard shot down the line. Now she has a variety of different ones.
"She’s widened her range of shots which has made her deadly. No one knows what’s coming off her. It keeps them on their heels. It’s a nice problem to have."
Lichtenstein credits the work she put in after dedicating herself to the sport. She’s hoping to finish the year strong and come back even better next season.
"Last year, I was only a sophomore," she said. "I played the middle position. I wasn’t the greatest at that position. I did club and also played middle then but it helped with my hitting. This year, I play outside. I’ve been getting a lot more kills. I changed up things. I went to a Delaware camp and it changed up my approach."
Lichtenstein expects to return a better player along with a strong core group of players who don’t want to miss out on states again. They should help the Pirates return to the state tournament after a frustrating, but encouraging, end to this year.
"North played well that game when we lost," Lichtenstein said. "We were all nervous. There was this huge reputation to uphold that we’ve always beaten North. Coming back the second time, we had so much confidence we would win.
"It’s tough knowing there are teams we’ve beaten that we didn’t beat the first time around. It’s hard to know we’re so much better than some teams that did make states. It could help us. A lot of juniors are playing now and that’ll be our team next year. I think we’ll be a good team."

